DOCSLIB.ORG

1 Chapter One Democracy, Democratic Ideals and Voting Voting

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 Chapter One Democracy, Democratic Ideals and Voting Voting Voting Systems: Chapter One Eddie Hyland Democracy, democratic ideals and voting Chapter One Democracy, democratic ideals and voting Voting is at the very heart of the democratic process. Very few people in the modern world believe in the myth of the statesman/woman who, “as the mystical representative of the nation”, can discern what the people think by examining his/her own heart. If the people are to rule, there must be institutionally defined channels of participation. There are many possible forms of popular participation. People can join political parties, they can inform themselves on political issues, they can discuss and debate these issues with their friends, but for most of us, formal participation in the exercise of political power comes down to the solitary act of voting. There are many factors that go to make up a particular voting system. One aim of this book will be to explain what these factors are and how they can be combined. It would probably be a safe guess that most voters would have some basic accurate knowledge of their own voting system in terms of how to fill out a valid ballot and, at least roughly, how their votes go to determine the results. But it would probably also be safe to say the following things: under normal circumstances most people take the voting systems that they are used to for granted. There are many technical aspects of such systems concerning which many people will have only the vaguest idea. The historical origins and rationale may not be fully understood. Furthermore, citizens of one state may lack detailed knowledge of the voting systems of other states and will probably not have engaged in any serious comparative assessment of different types of voting system and their underlying rationales. This relatively uncritical complacency with what people are accustomed to can, however, be seriously disturbed when the circumstances are not normal. A case in point was the U.S. presidential election of November 2000. The basis of the problem in that instance lay in the closeness of the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Events began to unfold dramatically when the major TV networks confidently predicted a Gore victory, only to retract that prediction when it became evident that victory in the electoral college depended crucially on who won the state of Florida, and that Bush seemed to be winning, but by such a small margin that recounts would be needed. The contentiousness, which in the specific case of Florida centred on such things as the late tally of postal votes, the ambiguity of the ballot paper, and 1 Voting Systems: Chapter One Eddie Hyland Democracy, democratic ideals and voting margins of error in vote counting, was compounded by the fact that even if Bush won the state of Florida, and hence the election as a whole, Gore had won a majority of the popular vote. 1 While there are, of course, serious questions concerning the democratic nature of electoral systems where there can be some degree of mismatch between the results and the popular vote, it is our contention that even more troublesome questions arise if we engage in a slightly more detailed analysis of the technicalities of voting systems, and a more searching investigation of what we might mean by “the will of the people”. To illustrate in a preliminary way the major importance of these issues, consider the following constructed electoral scenario, which though imaginary, is not very different from the U.S. presidential election of 2000 in terms of candidate support. In accordance with Mr. Morris’s prescription we will imagine an electoral system in which the result is directly dependent on the popular vote. Labelling our three candidates B, G and N, suppose that, on a turnout of 100,000,000, the percentage support for each candidate was: B G N 47% 45% 8% Table 1 Clearly, using the vote-counting system usually referred to as the plurality system (popularly called “first past the post”), B would win by a margin of two percentage points over G, with N a very distant third. Although two percentage points over a nearest rival is a relatively narrow margin, in terms of the postulated turnout it represents a very substantial 2,000,000 votes. Presumably this, according to Mr. Morris, would be democracy, because the will of the people is being heard and heeded. The 1 By some, this was thought to place democracy in America on trial. Dick Morris, chief electoral strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign, wrote at the time of the 2000 election: “I live in a democracy in the United States. Maybe. It is an absolute outrage for George W. Bush to become president if, as current trends suggest, he loses the popular vote by 250,000….if current vote totals stand up, Mr. Bush will win the presidency even though more people voted for Al Gore. This is not democratic….there is a clear and compelling need for the will of the people to be heard and heeded.” (Irish Times, November 10 th , 2000) 2 Voting Systems: Chapter One Eddie Hyland Democracy, democratic ideals and voting “maybe” could be erased and Americans could rest assured that they do indeed live in a democracy. The people of the Republic of Ireland also, so they believe, live in a democracy, with, according to Mr. Morris’s criterion, no “maybe” about it; the system for electing their president being already one in which the result is determined directly by the popular vote. In Ireland, however, the voting system – more strictly the balloting system and the procedures used for determining the results on the basis of the ballots – differs significantly from the simple plurality or “first past the post” system used in our first example. It is usually referred to as the Alternative Vote (AV) system and is rather more complex. To begin with, instead of being asked simply to nominate their first choice candidate, voters are invited to rank candidates according to their order of preference. A ballot form in an election with our three candidates B, G and N would look like this. B G N A voter wishing to select N before G, and G before B, would complete the ballot as follows: B 3 G 2 N 1 The numbers 1, 2 and 3 indicate first, second and third preference. The counting of votes takes pace in several stages. At the first stage each candidate’s first preference votes are summed. With identical preferences to those in our first example, the first count would of course produce the following results: B G N 47% 45% 8% 3 Voting Systems: Chapter One Eddie Hyland Democracy, democratic ideals and voting (47,000,000) (45,000,000) (8,000,000) Table 2 If, as is here the case, no candidate has an overall majority (i.e. no candidate has more than 50% of the vote and hence no candidate has a total vote greater than the combined first preference votes of the other candidates) a second stage of counting takes place. Without going into the finer points, this stage begins with the elimination of the candidate with the lowest number of first preference votes; in our example this would be N. What happens next is that each ballot with N as first choice is examined to see who is the second choice. These second preference votes are totalled for each remaining candidate and added to their first preference total. Taking N’s 8,000,000 ballots, suppose that 6,000,000 identified G as second preference, while only 2,000,000 identified B. The results of the second count would look like this: B G 49,000,000 51,000,000 (47,000,000 + (45,000,000 + 2,000,000) 6,000,000) Table 3 In a three-candidate election, this would constitute the final result, with G winning this time, with a straight 2,000,000 majority. With absolutely identical popular preferences over the candidates, and hence, one would think, the self-same “will of the people” contradictory results are produced. How an identical “will of the people” can produce totally contradictory results is a little puzzling and definitely democratically troublesome. But perhaps all is not lost. After all, the margin between the two front- runners is only two percentage points, and the two voting systems end up selecting one of the front-runners. Perhaps all we are dealing with here is a situation in which two reasonably democratic voting procedures, not being as absolutely fine-tuned as they could be, produce contrary results when the different between the front-runners is very small. We will be able to show in detail later how the narrowness of the margin between the front-runners is not the critical factor, but this point can be demonstrated 4 Voting Systems: Chapter One Eddie Hyland Democracy, democratic ideals and voting immediately and dramatically by introducing a third type of voting system, on that could claim to have just as good democratic credentials as the two already considered. The system in question is known as the Borda Count system, named after its 18 th - century proponent, the French academician Jean Charles de Borda. Many eminent theorists have strongly argued its high democratic credentials (see, for example, M. Dummett, Voting Procedures, pp.xxx). As with the AV system, voters are invited to rank order candidates, but unlike that system there is no sequential elimination of lower- ranked candidates. Rather, each candidate is awarded a number of points for each preference ranking, the usual method being that with n being the number of candidates, n-1 points are awarded for a first preference ranking, n-2 for a second preference and so on.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Fair Measure of the Right to Vote: a Comparative Perspective on Voting Rights Enforcement in a Maturing Democracy
    SCHOOL OF LAW LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES PAPER #10-0186 JUNE 2010 FAIR MEASURE OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON VOTING RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT IN A MATURING DEMOCRACY JANAI S. NELSON EMAIL COMMENTS TO: [email protected] ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW 8000 UTOPIA PARKWAY QUEENS, NY 11439 This paper can be downloaded without charge at: The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection http://ssrn.com/abstract=1628798 DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF AUTHOR ———————————————————————————————————— FAIR MEASURE OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE ———————————————————————————————————— Fair Measure of the Right to Vote: A Comparative Perspective on Voting Rights Enforcement in a Maturing Democracy Janai S. Nelson ABSTRACT Fair measure of a constitutional norm requires that we consider whether the scope of the norm can be broader than its enforcement. This query is usually answered in one of two ways: some constitutional theorists argue that the scope and enforcement of the norm are co-terminous, while others argue that the norm maintains its original scope and breadth even if it is underenforced. This Article examines the right to vote when it exists as a constitutional norm and is underenforced by both judicial and non-judicial actors. First, I adopt the position that the scope and meaning of a constitutional norm can be greater than its enforcement. Second, I rely on the argument that underenforcement results not only from judicial underenforcement but also from underenforcement by the legislative and administrative actors that are obligated to enforce constitutional norms to the fullest extent. By employing these two principles, this Article analyzes the underenforcement of the right to vote that has evaded the force of some of the most liberal contemporary constitutions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy
    Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2019 The mpI ortance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy Rebecca Ilana Shane Recommended Citation Shane, Rebecca Ilana, "The mporI tance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy" (2019). CMC Senior Theses. 2264. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2264 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Claremont McKenna College The Importance of Cultural Identity to Liberal Democracy submitted to Professor Paul Hurley and Professor Aseema Sinha by Rebecca Shane for Senior Thesis Spring 2019 April 29, 2019 1 Abstract The challenge facing liberal theories of democracy is to describe an organization of state that both legitimates state power and protects individual liberty. In Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government, Corey Brettschneider develops the value theory of democracy that resolves this tension. By locating the democratic ideal in a set of core values with both procedural and substantive implications, the value theory legitimates state coercion only when it protects citizens’ rights. While the value theory guarantees both substantive and procedural rights, this thesis will show that Brettschneider fails to account for the necessity of a secure cultural context, without which members of a minority culture may not be able to enjoy the core values as Brettschneider intends. Yet, the value theory of democracy can maintain a commitment to equality and autonomy when amended to have specific ethnic and cultural identity protections. Ultimately, this thesis will argue that the amended value theory provides a framework for citizens to both evaluate laws and correct injustices based on whether or not the policies uphold the core values.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy & Social Criticism
    Philosophy & Social Criticism http://psc.sagepub.com/ Apathy: the democratic disease Jeffrey E. Green Philosophy Social Criticism 2004 30: 745 DOI: 10.1177/0191453704045763 The online version of this article can be found at: http://psc.sagepub.com/content/30/5-6/745 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Philosophy & Social Criticism can be found at: Email Alerts: http://psc.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://psc.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> Version of Record - Dec 6, 2004 What is This? Downloaded from psc.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on May 6, 2013 12 045763 (to/d) 2/9/04 11:38 am Page 745 Jeffrey E. Green Apathy: the democratic disease Abstract This essay turns to ancient sources in order to rethink the relation- ship between political apathy and democracy. If modern democratic theorists place political apathy entirely outside of democracy – either as a destructive limit upon the full realization of a democratic polity, or, more sanguinely, as a pragmatic necessity which tempers democracy so that it may function in a workable yet watered-down form – the ancients conceived of political apathy as a peculiarly democratic phenomenon that was likely to flourish in tandem with the expansion of egalitarian institutional structures and moral ideas. Evidence for the ancient recognition of political apathy as a uniquely demo- cratic kind of affliction centers on, but is not limited to, three main sources. In literature, the Homeric epic, and specifically the story of Achilles, present apathy for politics and commitment to human equality as synonymous forces.
    [Show full text]
  • Ideals in Dictatorships and Democracies
    IDEALS IN DICTATORSHIPS AND DEMOCRACIES W. C. KEIRSTEAD ERMS have both intension and extension of meaning. T In extension dictatorships include Italy, Germany, per­ haps also Japan and Russia to-day. The dictatorship of the proletariat has turned into a dictatorship over the proletariat, and Stalin takes his place as one of the great triumvirate of living dictators. These dictatorships seem to be extending their power and influence in Europe and in other portions of the globe. The extent of democracy, although yet very large, has been decreasing, and its influence lessening in the world. In its intension dictatorship means a form of government in which absolute authority resides in a supreme leader, as in the countries mentioned, or in a small class. Obedience to such authority is the supreme virtue demanded of all citizens. As a form of social organization, dictatorship is of a military nature; authority flows from the top downward to subordinates, based upon the leadership principle; dominates all social organiza­ tions and institutions, and conditions the emotions, attitudes and beliefs of individuals. No government can be entirely indifferent to the opinions and emotions of the masses, and on this account dictatorship creates and establishes beliefs and attitudes by propaganda and education. But education is indoctrination, and an appeal to emotional responses of the masses to produce uniformity of feeling, belief and attitudes. As will be indicated later, such a system fails to give a real place to individual freedom or to encourage initiative. Conformity and obedience are the essential virtues of social value. Democracy as a form of political organization is a govern­ ment which exists by the consent of the governed.
    [Show full text]
  • “One Person, One Vote”: the U.S. Electoral System and the Functional
    THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON ASIA AFFAIRS “One Person, One Vote”: The U.S. Electoral System and the Functional Constituencies Embodied in the Basic Law for the Election of the Chief Executive and of the Legislative Council I. Introduction The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (the “Association”) has had a longstanding interest in preserving the rule of law in Hong Kong, and encouraging its progress to a truly democratic society with universal suffrage as envisaged in Articles 26, 39, 45 and 68 of the Basic Law.1 Accordingly, we view certain recent developments in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (the “HKSAR”) with great concern, in particular, the recent regressive “interpretations” of the Basic Law by the Central Government of China by which it pre-empted the question of whether there is a “need to amend” the Basic Law regarding the election of the Chief Executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council in 2008, the manner in which such “interpretations” were delivered, and the barrage of intimidating personal attacks by the Central Government against the pro-democracy supporters of universal suffrage which accompanied these “interpretations.” As the debate over constitutional reform in Hong Kong intensified over the course of this year, voices supportive of maintaining the electoral status quo in Hong Kong raised, at certain points, the example of the United States and its electoral system as they argued to reject the rising call in Hong Kong for the more immediate fulfillment of the Basic Law’s promise of “universal suffrage.” It is this reference to the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • SEOUL PLAN of ACTION DEMOCRACY: INVESTING for PEACE and PROSPERITY November 12, 2002
    SEOUL PLAN OF ACTION DEMOCRACY: INVESTING FOR PEACE AND PROSPERITY November 12, 2002 We, the Participants in the Second Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies held in Seoul on 10-12 November 2002, Affirm that the essential elements of representative democracy in all its forms are: Respect for human rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion and conscience; Access to and free exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law; The holding of periodic free and fair elections based on secret balloting and universal suffrage monitored by independent election authorities; Freedom of association including the right to form independent political parties; separation of powers, especially an independent judiciary; Constitutional subordination of all state institutions, including the military, to the legally-constituted civilian authority. We also reaffirm the Warsaw Declaration which includes our common commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and fundamental principles of international law. Recognizing the universality of these democratic values, the dedication of the Community of Democracies to promote and defend democracy, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms protected under democracy, we are committed to the continuous development of democracy domestically and the promotion of democracy regionally and globally. We, working as individual countries, within our
    [Show full text]
  • Policing Belief: the Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights Was Re- Searched and Written by Jo-Anne Prud’Homme, a Human Rights Researcher and Advocate
    Policing Belief THE IMPACT OF BlAsphemy Laws On Human RIghts A FREEDOM HOUSE SPECIAL REPORT Policing Belief The Impact of BlAsphemy Laws On Human RIghts OCTOBER 2010 C O p y R i g h T i n f or m aT i O n All rights reserved. no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the pub- lisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. TaBlE Of contenTs Introduction. 1 Algeria. 13 Egypt . 21 greece . 35 Indonesia. 43 Malaysia. 57 Pakistan. 69 Poland. 89 References. 95 abouT freedOm hOusE Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports the expansion of freedom around the world. Freedom House supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. Since its founding in 1941 by prominent Americans concerned with the mount- ing threats to peace and democracy, Freedom House has been a vigorous proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictatorships of the far left and the far right. Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie served as Freedom House’s first honorary co-chairpersons. Today, the organization’s diverse Board of Trustees is composed of a bipartisan mix of business and labor leaders, former senior government officials, scholars, and journalists who agree that the promotion of de- mocracy and human rights abroad is vital to America’s interests. aCknOwlEdgEmEnTs and sTudy team Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights was re- searched and written by Jo-anne prud’homme, a human rights researcher and advocate.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberal Secularism and Religious Freedom in the Public Space: Reforming Political Discourse
    LIBERAL SECULARISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE PUBLIC SPACE: REFORMING POLITICAL DISCOURSE ALEX DEAGON* INTRODUCTION One would prefer not to think of Justice Anthony Kennedy as a Keynesian “[m]adm[a]n in authority who hear[s] voices in the air” and who “distill[s] [his] frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”1 Still, in at least one passage, Obergefell v. Hodges2 confirms that “the ideas which civil serv- ants and politicians . apply to current events are not likely to be the newest.”3 Consider: Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or phil- osophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here. But when that sincere, personal opposition becomes enacted law and public policy, the necessary con- sequence is to put the imprimatur of the State itself on an exclusion that soon demeans or stigmatizes those whose own liberty is then denied.4 According to Justice Kennedy, “decent and honorable reli- gious or philosophical premises” may ground “sincere, per- sonal opposition” to same-sex marriage—apparently reasona- bly so—but those same premises, if they would be enacted in law and public policy, become unacceptable.5 This idea is not “the newest.” It is, in fact, the liberalism that venerable aca- demic scribblers such as John Rawls and Robert Audi have * Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology. 1. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY 383–84 (1936). 2. 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015). 3. KEYNES, supra note 1, at 384.
    [Show full text]
  • The Meaning of 'Populism'
    Article Philosophy and Social Criticism 2019, Vol. 45(9-10) 1025–1057 ª The Author(s) 2019 The meaning of ‘populism’ Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0191453719872277 journals.sagepub.com/home/psc Axel Mueller Northwestern University, USA Abstract This essay presents a novel approach to specifying the meaning of the concept of populism, on the political position it occupies and on the nature of populism. Employing analytic techniques of concept clarification and recent analytic ideology critique, it develops populism as a political kind in three steps. First, it descriptively specifies the stereotype of populist platforms as identified in extant research and thereby delimits the peculiar political position populism occupies in repre- sentative democracies as neither inclusionary nor fascist. Second, it specifies on this basis analy- tically–normatively the particular stance towards liberal representative democracy (in particular towards popular sovereignty and democratic legitimacy) that unifies populism’s political position and explains how populist politics can be compelling for democratic citizens. The normative core (populist ideology) turns out to require no more than two general principles of legitimizing political authority by elections. Surprisingly, it does not need a separate anti-pluralist or exclusionary commitment: it entails it. Third, this normative model allows a response to a contested question in the theoretical discussion, namely, whether populism (properly specified) can be democracy- enhancing. The article defends the negative answer in virtue of the normative core alone and does so as much vis-a-vis` a minimal (purely electoral) as vis-a-vis` a normatively ambitious (liberal) conception of democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Venezuela: Popular Sovereignty Versus Liberal Democracy
    1 Venezuela: Popular Sovereignty versus Liberal Democracy Michael Coppedge Opinions about the state of democratic governance in Venezuela during the first three years of the government of Hugo Chávez Frías were polarized. On one side, critics came close to labeling it a dictatorship. For example, Allan Randolph Brewer Carías wrote that the 1999 constitution “lays the constitutional groundwork for the development of political authoritarianism, buttressed by regulations that reinforce centralism, presidentialism, statism, state paternalism, partisanship, and militarism; with the danger of the collapse of democracy itself.”1 On the other side, Chávez claimed to be restoring a truly democratic regime to Venezuela: we will advance in the construction of a true democracy, of a true political, economic, and social system which we will build because they destroyed it during these last years. We are now going to demonstrate the daring and intelligence of the Venezuelan people who are building with their own hands a true democracy, where justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity prevail.2 The truth is more complex and subtle. In order to evaluate accurately the state of democracy during the first years of the Chávez presidency, one must sharpen the distinction between democracy narrowly defined as popular sovereignty versus the more conventional notion of liberal democracy. It is also necessary to look beyond the rules and institutions of Venezuela’s 1999 constitution to consider the way they were used. On first inspection, Venezuela still had a liberal democratic regime. Understood more deeply, it was no longer a 2 liberal democracy in every respect. Instead, it became an extreme case of delegative democracy- -a regime in which there is no "horizontal accountability," that is, no effective check on the president by the congress, courts, or other powers between elections.
    [Show full text]
  • The Enduring Relevance of Reagan's Westminster Speech by Mr. Richard
    The Enduring Relevance of Reagan’s Westminster Speech By Mr. Richard Fontaine In retrospect, it all seems so clear. In June 1982, the world had reached “a turning point,” Ronald Reagan said, “a great revolutionary crisis” within the Soviet Union.1 Moscow was overstretched, pouring resources into armaments while central planning stalled economic growth. Despite the USSR’s routine use of force to quell any stirrings of discontent, the yearning for liberty was rising from Central Europe to Vladivostok. “The march of freedom and democracy,” Reagan said, “will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.” The populations trapped behind the Iron Curtain were, the President announced, moving toward democracy. But their progress would not occur in isolation – they required the active support of the free world. “How we conduct ourselves here in the Western democracies,” Reagan said at Westminster, “will determine whether this trend continues.” And so, the United States would be no idle observer, silently cheering on the unfolding of freedom in lands where it was then denied. Democracy may be no fragile flower, the President observed, but “still it needs cultivating. If the rest of this century is to witness the gradual growth of freedom and democratic ideals, we must take actions to assist the campaign for democracy.” With his Westminster address, President Reagan set the course for an active and institutionalized American program of worldwide democracy support. Proposing “to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities,” Reagan set out the framework for what soon became the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and their sister organizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethical Implications of Democratic Theory for U.S. Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment
    Environmental Impact Assessment Review 35 (2012) 37–44 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Environmental Impact Assessment Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eiar Ethical implications of democratic theory for U.S. public participation in environmental impact assessment Marion Hourdequin a,c,⁎, Peter Landres a, Mark J. Hanson b, David R. Craig a a Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 790 East Beckwith, Missoula, MT 59801, USA b Department of Philosophy, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA c Department of Philosophy, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA article info abstract Article history: Traditional mechanisms for public participation in environmental impact assessment under U.S. federal law Received 16 September 2011 have been criticized as ineffective and unable to resolve conflict. As these mechanisms are modified and new Received in revised form 7 February 2012 approaches developed, we argue that participation should be designed and evaluated not only on practical Accepted 20 February 2012 grounds of cost-effectiveness and efficiency, but also on ethical grounds based on democratic ideals. In this Available online 17 March 2012 paper, we review and synthesize modern democratic theory to develop and justify four ethical principles for public participation: equal opportunity to participate, equal access to information, genuine deliberation, Keywords: Ethics and shared commitment. We then explore several tensions that are inherent in applying these ethical Democratic theory principles to public participation in EIA. We next examine traditional NEPA processes and newer collaborative Public participation approaches in light of these principles.
    [Show full text]